Top story: sweeping bill strips new governor’s powers

Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin have been accused of subverting democracy after passing a bill designed to weaken the incoming Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who dislodged Scott Walker at last month’s midterms. The bill was passed on Wednesday in a lame duck session, despite widespread outrage, and sent to Walker’s desk, where he has indicated he will sign it before leaving office in January. The outgoing governor was later booed at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the state capitol.

Blue wave. The bill also limits the powers of the state’s incoming attorney general, the Democrat Josh Kaul. Democrats won all six of Wisconsin’s statewide positions at the midterms.

China demands release of arrested Huawei executive

A profile of Huawei’s finance chief, Meng Wanzhou, displayed on a Huawei computer at a store in Beijing. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP

The arrest of a top Chinese executive in Canada, reportedly in connection with alleged violations of US sanctions on Iran, has sent panic through the markets and threatened a major diplomatic incident amid ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. China has demanded the immediate release of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, who is the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecoms giant. Meng was detained in Vancouver on Saturday and faces extradition to the US.

Trade truce. China has said it will “immediately” implement measures agreed under its trade war “truce” with the US, after a meeting between Donald Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.

43 delivers emotional eulogy as Washington mourns 41

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The key moments from George HW Bush's funeral – video

George W Bush was at his most eloquent on Wednesday as he delivered a poignant, funny and – finally – tearful eulogy to his father and fellow former US president, George HW Bush, at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. The state of relations between the other living presidents were clear during the funeral: Trump exchanged a cursory handshake with Barack Obama as he took his seat in the front pew, while ignoring the Clintons altogether.

Era of civility? Unlike Trump, George HW Bush demonstrated that it was possible to be friends with your adversaries. But, asks Zachary Woods, did that excuse his political shortcomings?

Are we already reading the Mueller report?

Mueller has already started to reveal his findings piece by piece. Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc

With new details of Robert Mueller’s dealings with Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen emerging in recent days, the story of Russia and the Trump campaign is already being revealed in dribs and drabs. Tom McCarthy asks whether the special prosecutor’s criminal indictments, sentencing memoranda and other official filings are in fact the first chapters of the Mueller report, being published as a serial instead of a single doorstop volume.

Charge sheet Here’s our updated list of those Russians and Trump associates already charged or identified as persons of interest by Mueller’s inquiry.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a US border patrol agent indicted for the murders of four women, after he confessed to shooting them in the head and leaving their bodies at rural roadsides in Texas.

A donkey and an emu that “fell in love” on an abandoned farm in South Carolina have been adopted by the actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has relocated the unlikely lovebirds to his home in the Hudson Valley.

Listen to Today in Focus: why are millions fleeing Venezuela?

The political crisis in Venezuela has become a humanitarian one, with millions fleeing a country in economic freefall. Two decades after Hugo Chávez was elected – and five years since his death – Tom Phillips reports on a legacy in ruins.

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Must-reads

From Atlanta to Apeshit, from the unhinged satire of Sorry to Bother You to the “unclassifiable” sketches of Random Acts of Flyness, black artists are expressing the absurdity of life in a racist society by embracing the disturbing and bizarre, writes Lanre Bakare.

My lifetime of back trouble

The author Maggie O’Farrell has suffered for years from chronic back pain, caused by a childhood illness and a belatedly diagnosed spinal injury. When you live with pain, she writes, “you need to be careful that your baseline for what’s acceptable doesn’t sink too low”.

Looking back on Schindler’s List at 25Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust drama had a profound effect on critics and audiences. As Schindler’s List is granted a 25th anniversary rerelease, Pamela Hutchinson argues that the story it tells is more vital now than ever.

Opinion

Almonds, carrots, quinoa, soy products, vegetable oil, corn and corn oil, canola seeds used in canola oil, beets and beet sugar, sweet potatoes – these are just some of the foodstuffs which typically contain high levels of glyphosate.